Gnarls Barkley

As Gnarls Barkley, producer Danger Mouse and singer CeeLo Green made some of the most wildly imaginative, acclaimed, and successful music -- blending styles including soul, rock, hip-hop, psychedelia, and film scores -- of their respective careers. The two were first heard together in 2003, when Green appeared on a remix of Mouse and Jemini's "What U Sittin On?" Gnarls Barkley debuted a couple years later with "Crazy," a mental illness anthem that, with its mix of vintage pop-soul and spaghetti western soundtracks, became a global smash hit. As a consequence, St. Elsewhere (2006), the duo's first album, likewise topped charts, leading to Grammy wins for Best Urban/Alternative Performance and Best Alternative Music Album. After they quickly followed up with The Odd Couple (2008), Mouse and Green put Gnarls Barkley on ice, but they reconvened almost two decades later for Atlanta (2026), billed as the duo's last offering.

Danger Mouse and CeeLo Green met in the late '90s at the University of Georgia, where the former was studying and DJing and the latter was performing with Goodie Mob. A few years later, Green was featured beside tha Alkaholiks on Mouse and Jemini's "What U Sittin On ," and shortly thereafter, Green appeared on "Benzi Box," a track from Mouse and MF Doom's joint album The Mouse and the Mask. By the time the latter project saw release, Mouse had raised his profile with the audacious The Grey Album, blending deconstructed Beatles tracks (from The White Album) with Jay-Z acapellas (from The Black Album), and also with his key contribution to Demon Dayz, the second Gorillaz album. Taking the name Gnarls Barkley -- a play on professional basketball legend and analyst Charles Barkley -- Mouse and Green achieved instant full flight with "Crazy," which took off with such speed that it became the U.K.'s first number one pop hit based strictly off downloads. (It wasn't released physically until after chart entry.) "Crazy" would become a Top Five hit across Europe and in the U.S., and the parent album, St. Elsewhere, was similarly successful chart-wise, eventually earning multi-platinum certifications in the U.K. and U.S. At the 49th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony in 2007, Gnarls Barkley were nominated in four categories, winning Best Urban/Alternative Performance and Best Alternative Music Album.

Gnarls Barkley quickly returned with The Odd Couple, a stylistically similar follow-up. Led by the downcast ballad "Who's Gonna Save My Soul," the album entered the U.S. chart at number 12 (eight places short of where the debut peaked) and resulted in another handful of Grammy nominations, including one for Best Alternative Music Album. Danger Mouse also received his third nomination for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, and his subsequent work with the Shins' James Mercer (as Broken Bells), Sparklehorse (Dark Night of the Soul), and the Black Keys ("Tighten Up") was acknowledged with a win the fourth time he was nominated. Green likewise resumed his solo career, starting with The Lady Killer in 2010. He hinted at the possibility of a third Gnarls Barkley album in 2013, but it wasn't until 13 years later that it materialized under the title Atlanta, promoted with "Pictures," a melancholy reflection on solitary train rides Green took as an eighth-grader in his home city. ~ Andy Kellman